"He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and he shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on." (Ver. 4.) Aaron's person, washed in pure water, and robed in the white linen garments, furnishes a lovely and impressive type of Christ entering upon the work of atonement. He is seen to be _personally_ and _characteristically_ pure and spotless. "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John xvii. 19.) It is peculiarly precious to be called, as it were, to gaze upon the Person of our divine Priest, in all His essential holiness. The Holy Ghost delights in every thing that unfolds Christ to the view of His people; and wherever we behold Him, we see him to be the same spotless, perfect, glorious, precious, peerless Jesus, "the fairest among ten thousand, yea, altogether lovely." He did not need to _do_ or to _wear_ any thing in order to be pure and spotless; He needed no pure water, no fine linen; He was, intrinsically and practically, "the holy One of God." What Aaron _did_, and what he _wore_--the washing and the robing, are but the faint shadows of what Christ _is_. The law had only a "shadow," and "not the very image of good things to come." Blessed be God, we have not merely the shadow, but the eternal and divine reality--Christ Himself.
"And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin-offering, and one ram for a burnt-offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house." (Ver. 5, 6.) Aaron and his house represent the Church, not indeed as the "one body," but as a priestly house. It is not the Church as we find it developed in Ephesians and Colossians, but rather as we find it in the first epistle of Peter, in the following well-known passage: "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a _spiritual house_, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (Chap. ii. 5.) So also in Hebrews--"But Christ as a Son over His own house; _whose house are we_, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Chap. iii. 6.) We must ever remember that there is no revelation of the mystery of the Church in the Old Testament. Types and shadows there are, but no revelation. That wondrous mystery of Jew and Gentile forming "one body," "one new man," and united to a glorified Christ in heaven, could not, as is obvious, be revealed until Christ had taken His place above. Of this mystery Paul was pre-eminently made a steward and a minister, as he tells us in Ephesians iii. 1-12, a passage which I would commend to the prayerful attention of the Christian reader.
"And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape-goat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin-offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scape-goat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scape-goat into the wilderness." (Ver. 7-10.) In these two goats, we have the two aspects of atonement already referred to; "the Lord's lot" fell upon one, and the people's lot fell upon the other. In the case of the former, it was not a question of the persons or the sins which were to be forgiven, nor of God's counsels of grace toward His elect. These things, I need hardly say, are of infinite moment; but they are not involved in the case of "the goat on which the Lord's lot fell." This latter typifies the death of Christ as that wherein God has been perfectly glorified with respect to sin in general. This great truth is fully set forth in the remarkable expression, "the Lord's lot." God has a peculiar portion in the death of Christ--a portion quite distinct--a portion which would hold eternally good even though no sinner were ever to be saved. In order to see the force of this, it is needful to bear in mind how God has been dishonored in this world. His truth has been despised; His authority has been contemned; His majesty has been slighted; His law has been broken; His claims have been disregarded; His name has been blasphemed; His character has been traduced.